Review of The Butler (2013) by Niels D — 09 Nov 2015

I have wanted to see this movie since it was broadcasted in Japan. At last I could see it.

The butler (Lee Daniels' The Butler) is a American historical movie which was broadcasted in 2013 and produced by Lee Daniels and written by Danny Strong. This movie is based on a true-life story of Eugene Allen. The leading man is Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines.

The main character is a butler of White House whose name is Cecil Gaines.The story is not about inside of White House but the changing of the United States. The beginning of the story is Cecil's childhood. In 1926, he and his family were black peoples and slave of white farmer in Macon, the United States. His father was killed by a white man. A old woman who lives in the farm made him to be 'House Nigger.' This experience as House Nigger helped him to live later. He became an adult and left the farm. He managed to get his job and was taught how to behave in front of his customers by a man who was also black person and work with him. The man recommend to him that he should work in a Washington D.C. hotel. He met his wife Gloria there. They had two children, Louis and Charlie. One day, he was hired as a butler of White House. After then he served successive seven presidents, Eisenhower to Reagan for 34 years. He had various experiences through his job as the butler with bewildering changes in the United States. While he worked for the president, his son, Louis joined the group that fought for black discrimination. He took part in a lot of campaigns and arrested many times. Cecil against him. Charlie became army and was dead in the Vietnam War. In the Reagan administration, Cecil changed the rules of the black butler's allowance. After that, he and his wife invited to a party as a guests. He was served by his colleagues and his thought changed. He felt empty to do his job as a butler and resigned from his post. The end of the story is that he invited to White House after Barack Obama was elected as the first African-American president in the United States.

I learned and understood a lot about racism in the United States of the time from this movie. I assumed that I could be crying because the Japanese title is "Tears of The president 's Butler." It sounds like a plenty of tears, isn't it?(only me?) But I didn't cry. Of course I moved, especially the part of Cecil and his wife visits his hometown, and they make sure their love each other. As I expected this movie didn't make me bored and it was good to see such a great movie.

(479 words).